So, as I had posted a while back, I managed a tremendous haul off of ebay, where I picked up two Genesis model 1 consoles, a model 1 Sega CD, and a 32X. I was ecstatic. However, I was missing many of the necessary hookups. What I ended up learning was far more bizarre than you can imagine.

Ok, so to hook up a Sega Genesis Model 1 the best possible way, you would need the A/V cable with composite video. No problem. But if you wanted stereo sound, you'd have to run from the headphone jack on the front to your RCA connections on your tv or stereo. Not so nice. However, the Sega CD allowed you to patch directly from that unit, so that made things easier...provided you had a Sega CD. Oh, and don't forget that both of them needed power, so you had to run two bulky AC Adapters.

Things got really interesting with the 32X.

To run the 32X properly, you had to run the AV cable from the back of the Genesis to the 32X. The 32X then had an output for an AV cable to connect to your television.

But wait, you weren't done yet!

The 32X didn't output audio signal from the Model 1 Genesis to the television. You were in luck if you had a Sega CD, because you could patch from the headphone jack to the Sega CD, then run the audio from the Sega CD to your stereo or television.

*whew*

And don't even get me started on the fact that you now need a 3rd block AC adapter to run the system.

A site that I came across with lots of helpful information on the subject was GameTROG, and luckily for me, they sell all the cables that I need to properly hook this stuff up. I can only hope there are more sites like this that exist for other gaming systems, since manuals are difficult to come by, and there is no such thing as tech support you can call for these older systems.

I'll leave you with one last tidbit. Sega really was the undisputed king of add-ons (though the silly attachments for the Wii are a rapidly-closing second place), and only Sega would give you something like this: